Dead island that inspired Skyfall comes to Google Street View

It goes by the name of Hashima, or Gunkanjima ("Battleship Island"), or even "The Dead Island", since it inspired the water-locked cyberterrorist HQ in Skyfall. As you can now see for yourself, courtesy of Google Street View, it's a very a real place off the coast of Japan's Nagasaki Peninsula, and it's even lonelier than its fictional counterpart in the Bond film (which wasn't actually filmed there). There are no tourist offices or giant Oedipus Complexes, as far as we can see, just long stretches of overgrown roads and collapsing apartment blocks that once housed 5,000 people, before they abandoned the island in 1974 following the demise of its coal industry. It took a Google employee two hours to map the place and preserve its crumbling visage for posterity using a special backpack, but don't be surprised if you want to leave it after just a few minutes.

Filed under: GPS, Internet, Google

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Source: Google's Japanese Blog

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/EhkU-qLTnYY/

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U.S. Senate committee to examine Smithfield-Shuanghui deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The proposed purchase of Smithfield Foods the world's largest pork processor, by Shuanghui International of China will be examined at a July 10 hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee, chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said on Thursday.

Smithfield chairman Larry Pope was scheduled to testify. Other witnesses have not been announced.

The hearing, "Smithfield and Beyond: Examining Foreign Purchases of American Food Companies" will look at how the government review of such takeovers account for food safety and protection of American technologies and intellectual property.

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; editing by Ros Krasny)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-committee-examine-smithfield-shuanghui-deal-144356411.html

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S.Africa's CPI expectations steady at 6 pct for 2013

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's average inflation expectations in the second quarter were unchanged at 6.0 percent for 2013 compared with the first quarter, a survey showed on Thursday.

The Bureau for Economic Research inflation expectations survey, conducted for the South African Reserve Bank, showed expectations for 2014 rose to 6.1 percent in the second quarter, from 6 percent in Q1.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/africas-cpi-expectations-steady-6-pct-2013-133101679.html

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CIIN urges insurance firms to develop SMEs - Vanguard

BY RITA OBODOECHINA

Chartered insurance institute of Nigeria, CIIN, has called on insurance firms? to ensure that the Industry should be in the vanguard of promoting medium and small scale enterprises in line with the transformation agenda of the Federal Government.

It said this during?? the institutes? 2013 International Education Conference, held in Lagos, with the theme ?The Nation in Transformation: Repositioning the insurance industry?

It said that operators should take their human capital development more seriously with a view to entrenching an enduring succession plan.

According to the CIIN, the Insurance Industry is facing serious challenges from the less than optimal financial literacy in the country, to this effect, the Industry should put the necessary machinery in place for up-scaling its on-going awareness creation.

It said, that modern Insurance is highly technology-driven, necessitating the need for Insurance Institutions to deploy cutting-edge technology in order to square up with the growing trends engendered by the National Transformation Process across all Sectors of the economy

According to the CIIN, the Insurance Industry should promote fruitful partnership with other relevant bodies and agencies in order to create beneficial synergies in business promotion.

?That the Insurance Industry should take a sterner look at the issue of corporate and individual practitioners? market discipline by putting in place a disciplinary system that is compatible? it said

Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/ciin-urges-insurance-firms-to-develop-smes/

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Singapore to Indonesia: Stop sending us your smog.

Air pollution in Singapore?rose to unhealthy levels this week because of illegal forest clearing in Indonesia,?prompting?Singapore?to urge Indonesia to do something to end the haze.

By Sara Schonhardt,?Correspondent / June 20, 2013

A masked man walks as the sun sets among buildings covered with haze at the Singapore Central Business District Thursday, June 20, 2013. Singapore urged people to remain indoors amid unprecedented levels of air pollution Thursday as a smoky haze wrought by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia worsened dramatically.

Joseph Nair/AP

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Cloudy skies in Jakarta were no match for the breathtaking haze that hit Singapore?on Thursday?as air-pollution levels rose to record highs and sparked a war of words between diplomats in both countries over who should shoulder the blame.

Skip to next paragraph Sara Schonhardt

Indonesia Correspondent

Sara Schonhardt is a Monitor contributor based in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she has been reporting since 2009.?Sara previously worked for various media in Thailand and Cambodia and received her master?s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

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Companies have asked employees to work from home, the military has stopped training outdoors, and pictures of Singapore's iconic Marine Bay Sands towers barely visible through the haze have been splashed across social media platforms?and newspapers.

Despite the international blame game, the immediate cause was clear enough: fires used to clear land in Sumatra for farming and palm oil plantations. A local meteorological agency reported nearly 150 hotspots alone in Riau Province, itself a hotspot for mining, logging, and palm oil production.

Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace released a statement saying that the fires illustrated how Indonesia?s government policies aimed at reducing deforestation had failed?since half of them were in areas off-limits to land clearing.

Each year slash and burn practices in Indonesia shroud neighboring Singapore and Malaysia in thick haze. As deforestation has accelerated in recent years, it has worsened.

On Thursday,?Singapore sent a delegation from its environmental agency to Jakarta to call for immediate action.?Singapore?s environment minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, issued an angry statement?on his Facebook page saying no country or corporation ?has the right to pollute the air at the expense of Singaporeans? health and well-being.??

But Indonesia shot back its own statement: Singapore should stop ?behaving like a child,? said Indonesia?s?Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Agung Laksono, who oversees fire response.

Mr. Balakrishnan had asked the Indonesian government to name and shame the companies involved in the illegal burning. But Indonesia?s forestry ministry launched back, saying?Singapore and Malaysia shared the responsibility for putting pressure on the resource extraction industry since many of companies were based in their countries.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/DSOCJEKKLvY/Singapore-to-Indonesia-Stop-sending-us-your-smog

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Babies know when a cuddle is coming

June 25, 2013 ? Babies as young as two months know when they are about to be picked up and change their body posture in preparation, according to new research.

Professor Vasu Reddy, of the University of Portsmouth, has found most babies aged two to four months understand they are about to be picked up the moment their mothers come towards them with their arms outstretched and that they make their bodies go still and stiff in anticipation, making it easier to be picked up.

This is the first study to examine how babies adjust their posture in anticipation to offset the potentially destabilising effect of being picked up.

Professor Reddy said: "We didn't expect such clear results. From these findings we predict this awareness is likely to be found even earlier, possibly not long after birth.

"The results suggest we need to re-think the way we study infant development because infants seem to be able to understand other people's actions directed towards them earlier than previously thought. Experiments where infants are observers of others' actions may not give us a full picture of their anticipatory abilities."

The findings could also be used as an early indicator of some developmental problems, including autism. It was reported by researchers in 1943 that children with autism don't appear to make preparatory adjustments to being picked up.

The researchers, who included Dr Gabriela Markova of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, and Dr Sebastian Wallot of the University of Aarhus, did two studies, one on 18 babies aged three months, and a second on ten babies aged two to four months old.

In both, babies were placed on a pressure mat which measured their postural adjustments during three phases: As their mothers chatted with their babies; as the mothers opened their arms to pick them up; and as the babies were picked up.

The results revealed infants as young as two months made specific adjustments when their mother stretched her arms out to pick them up. These included extending and stiffening the legs which increases body rigidity and stability, and widening or raising their arms, which helps to create a space for the mother to hold the infant's chest.

Between two and three months of age the babies' gaze moved from mostly looking at their mother's face to often looking at her hands as she stretched her arms out towards them.

The results reveal two important findings -- first, that from as early as two months babies make specific postural adjustments to make it easier to pick them up even before their mother touches them. And second, it appears that babies learn to increase the smoothness and coordination of their movements between two and four months, rather than develop new types of adjustment.

"In other words, they rapidly become more adept at making it easier for parents to pick them up," Professor Reddy said.

The mothers in the study were asked about their babies' physical responses before the tests and some reported their babies stiffened their legs or raised their arms in preparation for being picked up, but video footage watched frame by frame revealed physical adjustments happened to a greater degree and more subtly than mothers had noticed.

The researchers suggest more research now needs to be done to examine the extent to which infants discriminate between different kinds of actions directed at them, between familiar and unfamiliar actions, and how infant anticipation of these actions is influenced by the different maternal styles they each experience.

The research is published in the latest issue of the journal Plos One.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/0BD52rY3IaY/130625073554.htm

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Gym Towel and Skin Allergy ? Herzline

Health and Fitness June 24th, 2013 | No Comments ?

One of the essential items one should have in his gym bag is towels, the gym where we are working out provide towels and pair of gym clothes to fitness enthusiast. We are using their towel for few months already but just yesterday my husband seems got skin allergies using the towel on his face, my husband think it is from the soap they used in washing the towels and clothes because it only started when they changed soap. We know they have new soap because the gym owner arrived one night with big bag of wash soap.

[Image not Mine]

The red dotted mark was only on his face and neck where we uses the towel, it doesn?t feel itchy, hot or anything. With the occurrence of the allergy my husband decided to bring his own towel next time we visit the gym. We have towels at home but we thought using the towel in the gym is more convenient because we don?t need to wash clothes everyday.

[ Tagged In ] Fitness, Gym, Gym Essentials, Towel

Source: http://www.herzline.info/gym-towel-and-skin-allergy/

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Acer's 8.1-inch Iconia W3 tablet now on sale in the US

If you've wanted full-blown Windows 8 in bite-size form, you now have your chance: the Acer Iconia W3 is on sale in the US. The 8.1-inch slate is in stock at both Office Depot and Staples, starting at $350 for a 32GB model at Office Depot. Don't count on the 64GB version being available -- it's still listed as an online-only pre-order at Office Depot. There's also no word on inventory at Amazon or other competing retailers. Should you not be picky about capacities or store choices, however, you can take the W3 home today.

Filed under: Tablets, Acer

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Source: Office Depot, Staples

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/24/acer-iconia-w3-now-on-sale-in-the-us/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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NY court upholds ex-billionaire's conviction

NEW YORK (AP) ? The conviction of a onetime billionaire on insider trading charges was upheld Monday by a federal appeals court that concluded the government did not cheat to obtain permission to make its most extensive use of wiretaps ever in such a case.

Lawyers for 56-year-old Raj Rajaratnam had argued on appeal that the government improperly persuaded a judge in 2008 to permit a wiretap to be placed on Rajaratnam's cellphone. The wiretap was used to record 2,200 private conversations by Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon group of 14 hedge funds. Several dozen of those conversations were played for the jury that convicted him in 2011 of multiple counts of securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

"Rajaratnam's arguments are not persuasive," the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel in Manhattan.

The court said the wiretaps were properly obtained, despite a lower-court judge's finding that information about a probe of Rajaratnam by the Securities and Exchange Commission was "clearly critical" and that the government acted with "reckless disregard for the truth" in omitting certain information about the investigation in its requests for wiretaps.

The appeals court said it could not conclude that the government acted recklessly in its wiretap requests when fully disclosing the details of the SEC investigation would only have strengthened its argument for wiretaps.

Chronologies of the SEC's probe strongly suggested that Rajaratnam had been careful to exchange nearly all of his inside information by telephone, the appeals court noted. And it recounted statements by a government lawyer and an FBI agent who said they never thought about including information about the SEC probe in its wiretap application. The appeals panel said the lower-court judge had erred in failing to consider the states of mind of the wiretap applicants.

The Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam, arrested in 2009, is serving an 11-year prison sentence at a Massachusetts prison after the government said he made $75 million illegally. He did not appeal the legality of his sentence, which was substantially less than the 19 1/2 to 24 1/2 years prison term sought by the government.

He is scheduled to be released in 2021. In his criminal case, he was fined $10 million and was ordered to forfeit $53.8 million. He also was ordered to pay a record $92.8 million civil penalty to the SEC.

Prosecutors obtained more than two dozen convictions in a case they once called the biggest insider trading prosecution in history.

His lawyers declined to comment Monday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-24-Hedge%20Fund-Insider%20Trading/id-ce5eeb57fa4f4d4481ddf49d315c0211

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Profanity, theatrics mark first day of Zimmerman?s trial

SANFORD, Fla.?One of the most anticipated murder trials in recent memory began with a torrent of profanity from the prosecution and a knock-knock joke from the defense.

The State of Florida?s case against George Zimmerman began Monday with the expected debate about whether the man who shot and fatally wounded 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last February committed murder or acted in self-defense. What was not expected was a bit of forced humor, which fell jarringly flat.

The lead defense attorney, Don West, declared early in his remarks that ?sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying? and then ventured a joke. He confessed it was ?a little bit weird? to do so, and asked the jury to avoid holding the joke against the defendant.

Then he went ahead.

?Knock knock,? West said, stunning both the jury and the assembled onlookers.

?Who?s there?? he answered himself.

?George Zimmerman.?

?George Zimmerman who??

?Congratulations. You?re on the jury.?

There was barely a reaction.

?Nothing?? West said, in genuine surprise.

This was met with some nervous laughter.

It was a deeply strange way to open a trial about a killing that has rattled and vexed an entire nation. The death of Martin, on his way home from buying candy at a local convenience store, has touched a national third rail, launching arguments and protests about race, gun laws and civil rights.

Later, after a lunch recess, West apologized. ?I really thought it was funny,? he said. ?Sorry if I offended anyone.?

A clunky start struggled to find footing as West slogged through a long trail of evidence that lasted more than two-and-a-half hours. The argument meandered, and West admitted as much.

?I don?t know if you follow what I mean,? he told the jury at one point.

West?s statement stood in stark contrast to that of state?s attorney John Guy, who launched immediately into a flurry of storytelling that repeated Zimmerman?s muttered cusswords over and over again.

"'F---ng punks,'" Guy stated right away, quoting Zimmerman in his call to a police dispatcher in the moments before his confrontation with Martin. ?'These a--holes, they always get away.' Those were words in that grown man?s mouth.?

Guy tried to keep the emotion level raised throughout his opening, dipping into a narrative that seemed to come straight from a crime drama.

?As the smoke and the smell of that fatal gunshot rose into a rainy Sanford night,? Guy said, ?Trayvon lay face down in wet grass, laboring through his final breaths on planet Earth.?

Guy went on to declare that Zimmerman ?followed and murdered an unarmed teenager.? He also promised the jury, ?The truth is going to come directly from his month. Hateful words. Lies he told to police.?

He accused Zimmerman of ?going after? Martin: ?This defendant, riding around in his car, not with candy, not with fruit juice, but with 9 mm semi-automatic weapon.? Thirty minutes of crisp accusations, ushered along with voice modulation and the occasional gesture toward the stone-faced Zimmerman, ended with this:

?We are confident at the end of this trial you will know in your head, heart and stomach that George Zimmerman didn?t shoot Trayvon Martin because he had to. He shot him because he wanted to.?

Guy?s theatrics were offset by West?s scientific approach. One issue in this trial is Zimmerman?s mindset, and whether he was instigating or afraid. Second degree murder, as defined in Florida, is ?The unlawful killing of a human being, when perpetrated by any act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design to effect the death of any particular individual.?

Part of the defense?s goal is to show Zimmerman as calm and rational, motivated by protecting himself and the gated community for which he served as a neighborhood watch ?liaison.? While Guy presented the image of Zimmerman as determined to pursue Martin even though the minor was unarmed, West tried through painstaking detail to show it was Zimmerman who was in trouble, saying he noticed an unknown teenager approaching him, and took no aggressive steps in the minutes between seeing Martin in the dark and pulling the trigger.

?My focus is on the detail,? West told the jury. ?And if I have to sacrifice passion, it?s not because I don?t care. Even if it?s boring or somewhat technical, I want to give you the information.?

And so he went, explaining that Zimmerman obtained a gun because of a neighbor?s unruly dog and learned from an air marshal friend how to use it correctly. ?He was licensed and responsible,? West said. ?He did have the gun, and thank god.?

Throughout the two-and-a-half hours he spoke, West returned often to Zimmerman?s state of mind.

?George Zimmerman cooperated fully,? West said. ?He answered all the questions as many times as they wanted, as many days as they wanted.? This, he added, despite ?tremendous blows to his face and to his head.?

Zimmerman portrayed little emotion throughout the day. He stared straight ahead, stone-faced through Guy?s remarks and even appeared to be on the verge of dozing off during West?s. He hardly reacted to anything, at any point.

Martin?s mother, however, did react. Sybrina Fulton, after becoming emotional during a brief statement before the trial began, left the courtroom before the 911 call of the gunshot that ended her son?s life. She did not return until after the lunch recess.

West?s argument picked up momentum after the break, especially when he said Martin?s father told an investigator that it was not his son?s voice screaming on the 911 call. That will be a major point of contention, as much will ride on who the jury believes was crying for help in the seconds before Martin was shot.

Also at issue is whether Martin was on top of Zimmerman when the fatal shot was fired. West mentioned several pieces of evidence in his opening remarks?including the can of iced tea found on Martin after the shooting?to suggest Zimmerman was in a prone position. The lack of blood on Martin?s hands, noted in the state?s attorney?s remarks, was explained by the wet conditions and perhaps a medical examiner?s mistakes. As for the absence of Martin?s DNA? West said that ?doesn?t necessarily prove anything.? West even closed by countering the prosecution?s statement that Martin was unarmed.

?What the evidence will show you,? West said, ?is that?s not true. Mr. Martin armed himself with the concrete sidewalk. That is a deadly weapon.?

It left the jury with at least the idea that Martin, not Zimmerman, was the aggressor. And it was a sure signal that in such a sobering and troubling trial, there will be no more canned jokes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/profanity-theatrics-joke-day-1-george-zimmerman-murder-212736939.html

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At least 13 dead in bus crash in Montenegro

PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) ? At least 13 people were killed and 32 were injured when a bus carrying Romanian tourists swayed off a bridge and plunged into a deep ravine in central Montenegro on Sunday, police said.

Montenegro Interior Minister Rasko Konjevic said the bus with 46 people on board crashed some 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the capital, Podgorica. He said the bus was traveling from Romania to Montenegro's Adriatic coast.

Police said the bus plunged from a bridge over the Moraca river during a rain storm and crashed some 40 meters (130 feet) into the ravine. A helicopter was used in the rescue operation mounted by Montenegro police.

Konjevic said "sadly, this death toll could climb further" because seven of the passengers were seriously injured.

The winding road that leads from Serbia in the north through the Moraca canyon and then to the seacoast is notorious for traffic accidents because it is narrow and slippery in wet weather conditions.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-13-dead-bus-crash-montenegro-185624354.html

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Astros look strong in win over Cubs

Associated Press Sports

updated 7:46 p.m. ET June 22, 2013

CHICAGO (AP) - The Houston Astros used power hitting and precision execution to turn an early deficit into an exciting victory.

Ronny Cedeno's squeeze bunt scored Justin Maxwell with the tiebreaking run in the ninth inning to lead Houston over the Chicago Cubs 4-3 on Saturday after J.D. Martinez hit a three-run homer in the sixth.

"In order to play these types of close games, you have to play good baseball," Astros manager Bo Porter said. "What I love about our ballclub is even though we make some mistakes, they don't hang their head. They keep battling, they keep fighting and we find a way to either get ourselves back into the game or make it a ballgame every night."

Martinez did just that by tying the score with a long home run after Jose Altuve and Chris Carter singled.

"Altuve and Carter were able to get on and without them getting on with two outs, the game is not the same," Martinez said. "It feels good just to tie the game up and give our team a chance."

Jose Cisnero (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings for the win, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the eighth. Jose Veras earned his 15th save in 18 chances.

"Quality pitch after quality pitch, I'll tell you what I like, that his facial expression, his emotion, it never changed," Porter said.

Maxwell hit a leadoff double in the ninth against Kevin Gregg (2-1) and moved to third on Matt Dominguez's sacrifice. Cedeno followed with another sacrifice bunt, putting the Astros ahead.

Nate Schierholtz hit a solo homer in the fifth to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead. It was his 10th homer this season, setting a career high.

Alfonso Soriano reached scoring position in the bottom of the eighth with a double to left field but was called out by second base umpire David Rackley on a pickoff play that drew Chicago manager Dale Sveum out of the dugout for an argument.

Replays showed Soriano made it back to the bag before the tag.

"I know I had tagged the base before his glove tagged my hands," Soriano said. "I know my lead at second base. It doesn't matter how good of a move the pitcher has, I know my lead and I know I can get back. It doesn't matter if he has a good move."

Ryan Sweeney then hit a single that would have given Soriano a great opportunity to score. Instead, the Cubs loaded the bases before Darwin Barney flied out to end the inning.

"Soriano is safe at second base, so there is a run," Sveum said. "It's a broken record. We just can't seem to get that hit to break the game open in those situations. We get guys on and we just can't get them in."

Chicago starter Travis Wood appeared to be in control after getting a pair of outs to start the sixth inning. But after hard-hit singles by Altuve and Carter, Martinez tied the game with a long home run that cleared the left-field bleachers on its way to Waveland Avenue.

"Out of the park, literally out of the park, that was my only one," Martinez said. "This is really the only park you can do it. Everywhere else you've got to hit it 900 feet."

Wood had given up just two hits heading into the sixth and looked primed to earn his first victory in his last four starts.

"Really, it just falls back on me not being able to execute the pitches at that point," Wood said. "I missed bad (on the home run pitch). It was supposed to be back door and it ended up coming all the way across the plate and that just can't happen."

Luis Valbuena put the Cubs ahead with a two-run single in the third after a pair of Houston errors.

Barney hit a grounder to third that looked like a sure double play, but Dominguez threw high to second. Astros catcher Carlos Corporan compounded the mistake with an errant pickoff attempt that hit second base and ricocheted into shallow left field, allowing both runners to advance.

NOTES: The Cubs are 7-3 in interleague play with 10 games remaining. They haven't had a winning record against the American League since 2007 (8-4). ... Jeff Samardzija (4-7, 3.35 ERA) pitches Sunday for Chicago against Jordan Lyles (4-1, 3.22).

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Returning ... when?

CSN Washington: Bryce Harper wants to take his rehab slowly. The Nationals want him to speed things up. Who will win this battle of wits?

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/52285902/ns/sports-baseball/

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The Real Housewives of New Jersey Recap: Angry Italians

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/the-real-housewives-of-new-jersey-recap-angry-italians/

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Flooding may force 100,000 from west Canada homes

HIGHWOOD RIVER, Calgary (AP) ? Water levels from heavy flooding in western Canada were expected to peak around noon on Friday possibly forcing as many as 100,000 people from their homes, officials said.

Torrential rains and widespread flooding throughout southern Alberta on Thursday forced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway and isolated the mountain resort towns of Banff and Canmore.

The flooding washed out roads and bridges, left at least one person missing and caused cars, couches and refrigerators to float away.

Communities were hit hard just south of Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Many downtown neighborhoods were ordered evacuated as the evening went on. Officials said the evacuation would take place in stages over the next few days. The province reported that 12 communities were under states of emergency.

One woman who had been stranded on top of a trailer was missing after it was swept away, STARS air ambulance spokesman Cam Heke said.

Motorists who were trapped overnight Wednesday by water spilling over Canada's main western highway had to be rescued by helicopter, Town of Canmore spokeswoman Sally Caudill said.

"I woke up at about three o'clock in morning to the sound of this kind of rumbling, and it was the creek," said Wade Graham, a resident of Canmore. "At first it was just intense, pretty powerful, amazing thing to watch. As daylight came, it just got bigger and bigger and wider and wider, and it's still getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider."

He added, "I watched a refrigerator go by, I watched a shed go by, I watched couches go by. It's insane."

Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said water levels on the Bow River aren't expected to subside until Saturday afternoon. The Bow River Basin already has been battered with up to 100 mm (3.9 inches) of rain.

"Depending on the extent of flooding we experience overnight, there may be areas of the city where people are not going to be able to get into until the weekend," he told a news conference.

In High River, Mounties asked people with motorboats to help rescue at least a dozen stranded homeowners.

"We have people on their rooftops who were unable to evacuate fast enough," said RCMP Sgt. Patricia Neely.

Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning for the affected areas, estimating as much as 100 millimetres more rain could fall in the next two days.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/flooding-may-force-100-000-west-canada-homes-084839000.html

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Obama: Syria Isn't Another Iraq

President Obama defended the administration's decision to "ramp up" their support to Syrian rebel forces by, among other things, providing some lethal aid, during a sprawling interview with Charlie Rose on Monday night. The president "rejected" the view that getting more involved in Syria is a bad idea because of our previous experience in Iraq intervention, adding that he wants to frame the changes in our involvement in Syria as basically more of the same thing we've been doing all along:?

"Now, on the other side there are folks who say, you know, ?We are so scarred from Iraq. We should have learned our lesson. We should not have anything to do with it.? Well, I reject that view as well, because the fact of the matter is that we?ve got serious interests there...we can?t have the situation of ongoing chaos in a major country that borders a country like Jordan which in turn borders Israel. And we have a legitimate need to be engaged and to be involved.?

"We have humanitarian interests," Obama added of the Syrian violence, citing a figure of over 100,000 slaughtered. "The United States always has an interest in preventing that kind of bloodshed when possible."?

RELATED: Russia and China Veto U.N. Resolution on Syria

When addressing chemical weapons, Obama used almost the exact language he's used before on the issue, adding that the international community has a ?"strong taboo," against WMDs."I'd been very clear that if we saw the use of chemical weapons...then that would change my calculus," he said. As far as what's changed, he's not really saying. Obama essentially argued that every option was on the table, though he was mildly critical of the idea of a no-fly zone in the country:?"[it] might not solve the problem on the ground," he said.?

RELATED: Russia and Iran Prop Up Syria's War Machine, and Tell the West to Butt Out

The president also addressed the superhawk call of "why weren't we involved earlier:"?

"And the people who are being suppressed inside of Syria who develop into a military opposition ? these folks are carpenters and blacksmiths and dentists. These aren?t professional fighters. The notion that there was some professional military inside of Syria for us to immediately support a year ago or two years ago [is wrong].?

The president added that he now believes we have "better" or good enough information on who the moderates are among the rebel fighters, and who the extremists are. That presented another problem:?

?And one of the challenges that we have is that some of the most effective fighters within the opposition have been those who frankly are not particularly [friendly] towards the United States of America, and arming them willy-nilly is not a good recipe for meeting American interests over the long term.?

The President kept the door open, even, for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, arguing that his ultimate vision for Syria is a "stable, non-sectarian representative Syrian government that is addressing the needs of its people through peaceful processes."?

RELATED: Italian, French, Arab Ambassadors Leave Syria as Russia Reaches Out

And he walked close, but still around, the whole issue of Russia's support for the Assad regime:?

"Assad, at this point ? in part because of his support from Iran and from Russia ? believes that he does not have to engage in a political transition, believes that he can continue to simply violently suppress over half of the population. And as long as he?s got that mind-set, it?s going to be very difficult to resolve the situation there.?

The 45-minute interview with the president was taped just before Obama left for the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland. According to a Gallup poll out Monday,?54 percent of Americans disapprove of the President's decision to send arms to the Syrian rebels. Democrats were slightly more likely to support the aid ? 51 percent of Democrats approve, compared to 33 percent of independents and 29 percent of Republicans.?

RELATED: Houla Killings Could Be Syrian Tipping Point

Earlier on Monday, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes addressed the difficulties between Russia and U.S. on Syria in a press briefing: "we?ve clearly had differences over Syria in the past and continue to have differences as it relates to principally the fact that the United States believes that any transition in Syria has to involve Bashar al-Assad leaving power," adding that both countries would prefer a diplomatic solution to the ongoing civil war. Earlier, Russia already indicated its stance against imposing anything approaching a no-fly zone over the country, something the U.S. is apparently considering. And they are very much not interested in seeing us arming the rebels.?

RELATED: Putin Dumps on America, Assad, and Mayans in 3-Hour Q&A

Meanwhile, the U.S. promised?$300 million for Syrian humanitarian aid on Monday. About half of it will go to Syria, with the rest aiding refugees in other countries.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-syria-isnt-another-iraq-033730425.html

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Senator puts hold on some Afghan aid over Karzai 'ghost money'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Monday he is holding up millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Afghanistan until President Barack Obama's administration explains the rationale behind more than a decade of cash payments to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Senator Bob Corker, the senior Republican on the committee, said he put a hold on $75 million intended for electoral programs in Afghanistan after Obama's administration failed to respond to his letters on May 2, May 14 and June 13 about the payments.

The New York Times reported in April that the CIA delivered tens of millions of dollars in "ghost money" - cash intended to buy influence - to Karzai's office in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags.

The money was meant to buy influence for the CIA, but instead fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying.

"This hold will remain in place until such time as I receive sufficient information on these matters and sufficient assurances that there is a process in place to ensure our policy towards governance in Afghanistan is coherent and supports our national interests," Corker said in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah.

Obama administration officials were not immediately available for comment on the matter.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senator-puts-hold-afghan-aid-over-karzai-ghost-201538995.html

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Obama: Northern Ireland peace will be tested

President Barack Obama gestures during a speech at the Belfast Waterfront Hall on Monday June 17, 2013, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Obama is attending the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland where leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing conflict in Syria, and free-trade issues. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama gestures during a speech at the Belfast Waterfront Hall on Monday June 17, 2013, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Obama is attending the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland where leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing conflict in Syria, and free-trade issues. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

US President Barack Obama, left, and his wife Michelle Obama wave after he delivered a keynote address ahead of the G-8 summit at Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Monday, June 17, 2013. (AP Photo/ Paul Faith, Pool)

President Barack Obama waves as he arrives to deliver a speech at the Belfast Waterfront Hall on Monday June 17, 2013, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Obama is attending the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland where leaders are expected to discuss the ongoing conflict in Syria, and free-trade issues. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

US President Barack Obama delivers a keynote address ahead of the G-8 summit at Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Monday, June 17, 2013. (AP Photo/ Paul Faith, Pool)

US President Barack Obama, second left, his wife Michelle, second right, and daughters Sasha, front, and Malia, first right, are greeted by Joan Christie, left, The Queen's official representative in County Antrim, upon arrival at Belfast International Airport, Northern Ireland, on Monday, June 17, 2013. President Obama is in Northern Ireland to attend the G8 Summit in Enniskillen. (AP Photo/ Peter Muhly, Pool)

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (AP) ? President Barack Obama declared peace in Northern Ireland a "blueprint" for those living amid conflict around the world, while acknowledging that the calm between Catholics and Protestants will face further tests. Summoning young people to take responsibility for their country's future, Obama warned there is "more to lose now than there's ever been."

"The terms of peace may be negotiated by political leaders, but the fate of peace is up to each of us," Obama said Monday during remarks at Belfast's Waterfront Hall. The glass-fronted building would never have been built during the city's long era of car bombs.

Obama arrived in Northern Ireland Monday morning after an overnight flight from Washington. Following his speech to about 1,800 students and adults, he flew to a lakeside golf resort near Enniskillen, passing over a sweeping patchwork of tree-lined farms as he prepared to meet with other leaders of the Group of 8 industrial nations on Syria, trade and counterterrorism. One-on-one meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta were all on the agenda for Monday.

Cameron selected Enniskillen as the site of this year's meeting as a way to highlight Northern Ireland's ability to leave behind a four-decade conflict that claimed 3,700 lives.

Significant progress has been made in the 15 years since the U.S.-brokered Good Friday Accords, including a Catholic-Protestant government and the disarmament of the IRA and outlawed Protestant groups responsible for most of the 3,700 death toll. But tearing down Belfast's nearly 100 "peace lines" ? barricades of brick, steel and barbed wire that divide neighborhoods, roads and even one Belfast playground ? is still seen by many as too dangerous. Obama cited that playground in his speech, lauding an activist whose work led to the opening of a pedestrian gate in the fence.

Acknowledging the reality of a sometimes-fragile peace, Obama recalled the Omagh bombings that killed 29 people and injured hundreds more. It was the deadliest attack of the entire conflict and occurred after the Good Friday deal.

Peace will be tested again, Obama said in Belfast.

"Whenever your peace is attacked, you will have to choose whether to respond with the same bravery that you've summoned so far or whether you succumb to the worst instincts, those impulses that kept this great land divided for too long. You'll have to choose whether to keep going forward, not backward," he said.

Last month, the Catholic and Protestant leaders of Northern Ireland's unity government announced a bold but detail-free plan to dismantle all peace lines by 2023. British Prime Minister David Cameron formally backed the goal Friday, and Obama followed with his own endorsement Monday.

The president specifically endorsed an end to segregated housing and schools, calling it an essential element of lasting peace.

"If towns remain divided ? if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs, if we can't see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden ? that too encourages division. It discourages cooperation," Obama said.

One symbol of that effort to end the segregation was on display as Obama spoke to an audience that brought together students from both faiths, effectively integrating Northern Ireland's schoolchildren if just for a morning.

Drawing on America's own imperfect battle with segregation, Obama recalled how a century after the U.S. Civil War, the nation he leads is still not fully united. His own parents ? a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya ? would not have been able to marry in some states, Obama said, and he would have had a hard time casting a ballot, let alone running for office.

"But over time, laws changed, and hearts and minds changed, sometimes driven sometimes by courageous lawmakers, but more often driven by committed citizens," he said.

Though Obama did not specifically mention Syria, his remarks on Northern Ireland recalled the fierce conflict there that has so far resulted in 93,000 deaths. For those looking for a way out of conflict, Obama said Northern Ireland is "proof of what is possible."

Obama and other G-8 leaders were expected to discuss Syria Monday night over a working dinner. Obama will be looking to Britain and France to join him in sending weapons to the Syrian opposition.

Casting a shadow over the summit are new revelations by the Guardian newspaper that the British eavesdropping agency GCHQ repeatedly hacked into foreign diplomats' phones and emails when the U.K. hosted international conferences, including a 2009 Group of 20 summit in London. The report follows recent disclosures about the U.S. government's own surveillance programs and could lead to awkward conversation as the leaders open another international gathering that Britain is hosting.

Despite an agenda devoted to trade, economic growth and international tax issues, the G-8 will be eclipsed by discussions over how to address the two-year-old civil war in Syria and the decision by the United States to begin supplying rebels with military aid.

Obama's meeting with Russia's Putin later Monday will highlight the rift between their countries in addressing fierce fighting in Syria. While Putin has called for negotiated peace talks, he has not called for Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, and he remains one of Assad's strongest political and military allies.

In a likely preview of his discussions with Obama, Putin defended Russia's continuing supply of weapons to Assad's military in a meeting Sunday with Cameron, the British leader.

Putin said Russia was providing arms "to the legitimate government of Syria in full conformity with the norms of international law."

The White House is not expecting any breakthrough with Putin on Syria during Putin's meeting with Obama.

Obama is making his first visit to Northern Ireland, though he visited the neighboring Republic of Ireland in 2011. That trip included a public speech in the center of Dublin, as well as a stop in the village of Moneygall, where Obama's great-great-great grandfather was born. The president called that visit "magical."

First lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha, who also made the trip from Washington, were to spend Monday and Tuesday in Dublin while the president attended the G-8 summit. Later Tuesday, the first family departs for Germany, where the president will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and speak at the Brandenburg Gate.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Sligo, Ireland and Shawn Pogatchnik in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-17-EU-Obama/id-7b3e0f60acae4f199e56c8b81d93589a

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Remote Mich. village abuzz over shipwreck search

FAIRPORT, Mich. (AP) ? Commercial fisherman Larry Barbeau's comings and goings usually don't create much of a stir in this wind-swept Lake Michigan outpost, but in the past few days, his phone jangles the minute he arrives home.

Barbeau's 46-foot boat is the offshore nerve center for an expedition seeking the underwater grave of the Griffin, the first ship of European design to traverse the upper Great Lakes. Built on orders of legendary French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier de la Salle, it ventured from Niagara Falls to Lake Michigan's Green Bay but disappeared during its return in 1679.

Divers this weekend opened a pit at the base of a wooden beam that juts nearly 11 feet from the lake bottom, believing it could be a section of the vessel, the rest presumably entombed in mud. They picked up the pace Monday with more powerful equipment after a weekend of probing showed that whatever is buried is deeper than sonar readings indicated.

U.S. and French experts insist it's too early to say whether there's a shipwreck ? let alone the Griffin. But anticipation is building at the prospect of solving a maritime puzzle that's more than three centuries old.

"After we get done for the day, everybody calls or comes to the house and they're like, 'What did you find? What did you see? Can you tell me anything?' " Barbeau said in a Sunday interview aboard his ship, the Viking, which holds crucial expedition equipment, including "umbilical" cables that supply oxygen to divers. "People are really interested and they're excited to see what it is."

His neighbors aren't the only curious ones. The roughly 40-member expedition team consists of archaeologists, historians, boat pilots, divers, an underwater salvage crew and assorted helpers. When not on the water, they stay in cottages and tents by the lake in the unincorporated village of Fairport, in one of the most remote corners of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Some are relatives or longtime friends of mission chief Steve Libert, who has sought the ship for three decades. While researching the Griffin long ago, Libert ran across Mike Behrens, a Milwaukee sheet-metal worker whose grandfather had searched the lake for chests of gold that legend says smugglers lost during the Civil War.

"I came up here one year to witness what Steve was doing, and I asked if I could dive with him," said Behrens, 54. "Been doing it ever since. ... I've never met anyone as good at research as him, and he's a very ethical guy. If he says it's the Griffin, I absolutely believe him."

Others have come aboard more recently, including three archaeologists from France who arrived over the weekend.

The hands-on excavation work is being handled by a three-man crew from Great Lakes Diving and Salvage, a Michigan company that ordinarily deals with mundane tasks: repairing pumps or scraping zebra mussels off intake pipes.

"We're basically underwater janitors," said Tom Gouin, vice president of operations. The Griffin, he said, is "like a play job for us. We're loving it."

The team has had to adjust its strategy, as the excavation is proving to be a bigger-than-expected challenge.

Sonar scans in years past had suggested that an object similar to the Griffin's reputed size rested about 2 feet beneath the lake floor. But commercial divers found Friday the bottom caked with a thick layer of invasive, fingernail-sized quagga mussel shells.

After tunneling through mussels, the divers began sucking away gravel and sediments, never hitting anything solid. By Sunday night, the hole reached about 8 feet below the lake bed and it wasn't clear how far down the wooden beam extended or what it might be attached to, said Ken Vrana, the project manager.

But as more is exposed, the post appears increasingly likely to be part of a ship, said Michel L'Hour, director of France's Department of Underwater Archaeological Research.

"We never saw a timber standing like this one," he said. "So it's impossible to imagine it otherwise, so one can expect that there is a hull."

Archaeologists Rob Reedy of Morehead City, N.C., and Misty Jackson of Leslie, Mich., sit on the Viking and sift through material that was found in the sediment, watching for artifacts, from bronze cannons to axes or knives ? "anything man-made" that would help identify a ship, Reedy said. Thus far, the only candidate has been a slab of blackened wood about 15 inches long with characteristics suggesting it might have been fashioned by human hands. Its origin remains unknown.

Visitors inspired by the long-lost ship have drifted into the area during the search, including a 9-year-old who wrote a school paper about the Griffin and men in period costumes and handmade canoes who in 1976 re-enacted la Salle's journey across the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River.

Carl Behrend, a folk singer and self-described "pretty-soon major movie star" who lives 90 minutes north on Lake Superior, performed an impromptu concert outside the food tent Sunday night. He said he's composing a song about the Griffin.

"It's rattling around in my head," he said.

___

Follow John Flesher on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JohnFlesher

AP Correspondent John Flesher is embedded with members of the Great Lakes Exploration Group, which is searching for remains of the Griffin in northern Lake Michigan. He is filing periodic updates on the search progress.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/remote-mich-village-abuzz-over-shipwreck-search-172712568.html

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Obama, Putin face tough talks on Syria at G8 summit

By Guy Faulconbridge

LOUGH ERNE, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will seek the help on Monday of Russia's Vladimir Putin, Syria's most powerful ally, to bring Bashar al-Assad to the negotiating table and end a two-year civil war.

At their first private face-to-face meeting in a year, Obama will try to find common ground with Putin on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Northern Ireland after angering the Kremlin by authorising U.S. military support for the Syrian president's opponents.

During talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on the eve of the summit, Putin renewed his criticism of the West's position in startling tones, describing Assad's foes as cannibals.

"I think you will not deny that one does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines, in front of the public and cameras," Putin said at a joint news conference with Cameron.

"Are these the people you want to support? Is it them who you want to supply with weapons?"

Cameron conceded London and Moscow remained far apart.

Russia does not buy the West's assertion that Assad's forces have used chemical weapons and crossed a red line in doing so, saying U.S. military support for Syrian rebels would only escalate violence.

Washington said on Saturday it would keep F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles in Jordan at Amman's request, prompting Moscow to bristle at the possibility they could be used to enforce a no-fly zone inside Syria.

Putin's rhetoric has become increasingly anti-Western since he regained the presidency last year but he appeared upbeat in London, stressing several areas of cooperation between Russian and Britain.

At the Lough Erne golf resort in Northern Ireland, Cameron will bring together leaders of the United States, Japan, Canada, Russia, Germany, France and Italy - representing just over half of the $71.7 trillion global economy.

Syria will inevitably dominate the Monday-Tuesday talks but persistent worries about the global economy will also be central to the discussions.

MARKET TURMOIL TO FOCUS MINDS

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders will likely discuss the role of central banks and monetary policy.

They are likely to say they are not content with progress so far in fixing their economies in the wake of the global financial crisis, according to a draft communique seen by Reuters.

Japan's Abe will use the opportunity to explain his cocktail of fiscal and monetary stimulus known as 'Abenomics' to the leaders as investors try to absorb the implications of a signal by the U.S. Federal Reserve that it may start to slow its money-printing.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will not attend. He and his colleagues hold a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bond yields have climbed and share prices have sagged globally since Bernanke shocked investors on May 22 by saying the bank might ?take a step down' in the pace of bond purchases - a blow to a global economy still growing well below trend due to the after effects of the great financial crisis.

"Japan's decisive moves to reflate its economy will support growth in the near term, but it will need to manage the twin challenge of providing near-term stimulus and achieving longer-term sustainability," the draft communique said, although the version circulated by Britain and seen by Reuters was put together before the recent market turmoil.

The leaders of the European Union and United States are likely to announce the start of formal negotiations on a free trade deal that could be worth more than $100 billion a year to each economy.

EU and U.S. negotiators aim to finish their work by the end of next year.

TREASURE ISLAND TAX

Cameron has made tackling tax avoidance - which campaigners say costs about $3 trillion a year - one of the key parts of the formal agenda at the summit.

He has turned up the pressure to clamp down on secretive money flows by pressing Britain's overseas tax havens into a transparency deal and announcing new disclosure rules for British firms.

"It is important we are getting our house in order," Cameron said on Saturday after representatives of overseas tax havens linked to Britain agreed to sign up to an international transparency protocol.

Aid campaigners said Britain's action will count for little if the rest of the G8 does not follow suit.

G8 leaders will probably shy away from adopting a measure aimed at curbing tax avoidance by highlighting when companies channel profits into tax havens, and will include a watered-down alternative, according to the draft communique.

Tackling corporate tax avoidance has become a political goal internationally following public anger about revelations over the past year that companies like Apple and Google had used structures U.S. and European politicians said were contrived to minimise the amount of taxes paid.

But the draft summit text suggested there will be no agreement on a rule that would force companies to publish their profits, revenues and tax payments on a country-by-country basis.

Global tax evasion could be costing more than $3 trillion a year, according to researchers from Tax Justice Network while as much as $32 trillion could be hidden by individuals in tax havens.

(Writing by Maria Golovnina, editing by Mike Peacock)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-putin-face-tough-talks-syria-g8-summit-230407848.html

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CA-NEWS Summary

West scolds Putin over Syria before G8 meeting

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - Western leaders criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting Syria's Bashar al-Assad in his battle to crush a two-year-old uprising, setting the stage for what could be a difficult meeting of world leaders over Monday and Tuesday. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who chairs the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, acknowledged there was "a big difference" between the positions of Russia and the West on Syria. Moscow said it would not permit no-fly zones to be imposed over Syria.

Striking workers face off with police in Turkish capital

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish riot police backed by water cannon faced off with around 1,000 trade union workers in the capital Ankara on Monday, after a weekend of some of the worst clashes since anti-government protests erupted late last month. Police officers used megaphones to order workers to stop their march towards Ankara's central Kizilay district.

Russia says it will not allow Syria no-fly zones

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, will not permit no-fly zones to be imposed over Syria, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday. "I think we fundamentally will not allow this scenario," Lukashevich told a news briefing, adding that calls for a no-fly zone showed disrespect for international law.

Rohani hopes all countries will use chance of friendly ties

DUBAI (Reuters) - President-elect Hassan Rohani said on Monday he hoped the world would grasp a new opportunity for "constructive interaction" with Iran and pledged to be more transparent about the Islamic Republic's nuclear program in order to see sanctions lifted. But he said Tehran was not ready to suspend its enrichment of uranium, which the West fears is aimed at producing a nuclear weapons capability - something Iran denies. "That period has ended," he said.

Protests to give new turn to Egypt revolution

CAIRO (Reuters) - Does Egypt face a new revolution? Millions hope so, it seems; they have signed a national petition demanding the president resign and plan to take to the streets on June 30, when Mohamed Mursi marks a year in office.

Pope Francis meets Venezuelan President Maduro

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis met Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday for the first time since Maduro won a narrow and disputed election victory to succeed late Socialist leader Hugo Chavez. The men discussed poverty, the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking, and regional issues including a dispute between Venezuela and Colombia, a statement from the Vatican said.

Bulgarian PM vows transparency on security chief issue

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's prime minister pledged on Monday to seek wide public support in picking a new head of state security after street protests forced the two-week old Socialist-led government to ditch its original candidate. Thousands of Bulgarians rallied to demand the government's resignation after it named a powerful media figure to the highly sensitive post without debate, a move critics said showed the lack of transparency in the European Union's poorest country.

South Africa's Mandela 'doing very well': daughter

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela, who is being treated in hospital for a lung infection, is "doing very well", his daughter said on Monday. The 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994, was rushed to hospital early on June 8 with a recurring respiratory infection.

Montreal mayor arrested by anti-corruption squad-reports

TORONTO (Reuters) - Montreal's new mayor, who pledged to stamp out corruption at City Hall when he took office late last year, was arrested by Quebec's anti-corruption police squad on Monday, numerous Canadian media outlets said. Michael Applebaum, the French-speaking city's first anglophone mayor in more than a century, was arrested at his home early Monday morning by the Unite permanente anticorruption (UPAC), a police spokeswoman told the La Presse newspaper and other media outlets.

Iranian vote unlikely to change nuclear policy: Israel's Netanyahu

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran's election showed popular discontent with the Tehran government but was unlikely to bring about any change in nuclear policy. "The Iranian election clearly reflects deep disaffection of the Iranian people with its regime, but unfortunately it doesn't have the power to change Iran's nuclear ambitions," Netanyahu told Reuters in an interview.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-004945846.html

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What Did You Want to Be When You Were 8?

Gerry Allen, left, helps a little friend bring the canon ball to the canon.

Courtesy Gerry Allen

By the time he was 8 years old, Gerry Allen had already chosen a career. ?I wanted to be a National Park ranger. That?s all I wanted to do,? he recalls. When he got to Auburn University, he shaped his studies?a biology major and minors in forestry, outdoor recreation, and wildlife management?with the aim of becoming ?the world?s greatest park ranger.? But he came of age during the Vietnam War, and rather than being drafted, he interrupted his studies for a four-year stint in the Coast Guard. By the time he finished college, he was married, and he and his wife, Linda, had welcomed the first of their two sons. Suddenly, becoming a ranger didn?t seem like the most responsible option.

?The Park Service is part of the government, and down low, there?s not much money,? Allen says. ?Once the kids came along, I needed to take care of them.? It wasn?t just a matter of income; he wanted to give his kids a stable home base, and park rangers often serve in extreme locations. ?Starting out, it would?ve been hard to provide what I wanted to out in the middle of Death Valley with plywood down on the floors.?

So Allen and his family settled in Atlanta, and he went to work for Delta Air Lines, where he helped set up the company?s environmental programs. It wasn?t the work that he?d dreamed of, but that doesn?t mean he was unhappy. ?It was a wonderful job, a great job,? he says. He got to travel the world, develop programs to identify and clean up hazardous waste, and ensure that the facilities where airlines store their fuel supplies were environmentally sound.

Still, as much as he enjoyed his 29 years at Delta, he never lost sight of his boyhood dream. Thinking back on those years, he laughs, remembering, ?When we?d go on vacation, I?d always take my kids to national parks, and every time I?d see a park ranger, I?d say, ?That sucker?s got my job.? ?

In 2001, after the disruptions of 9/11, Delta offered thousands of employees an early retirement package. Gerry was 56 at the time, and Linda recognized an opportunity to start over. ?My wife said, ?You know, the kids are gone. They?re offering us a pretty good package. I?m willing to sell the house and move around like a gypsy if you want to go to work for the park service.? ?

And so the Allens? great second-act adventure began.

Gerry Allen took a job in a Bass Pro Shop while he conducted his job search. After four months and between 60 and 80 applications to parks all over the country, he landed his first Park Service post, at Vicksburg National Military Park as a ?visitor use assistant, fee collector.? ?That?s the guy who sits at the gate and takes $5 as the cars come through,? he says.

Moving from Atlanta to Mississippi to take the job may seem a little extreme, but Allen was happy. ?I got to wear the uniform,? he says. Of course, that doesn?t mean he was content in that position. Determined to work as an interpretive park ranger, he progressed up the Park Service career ladder?with stops at three other parks along the way?until he found his current position at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. ?We've moved house about eight times in the last 10 years,? he recalls. ?That's where my wife is the key. She could've stopped it all if she'd wanted to, but she was adventurous, too.?

Allen finally has his dream job, instructing visitors?often school parties?about the history of the park and the Civil War battles that occurred there. He?s essentially an educator, but unlike most teachers, his lesson plans sometimes involve firing cannons and shooting rifles, and, of course, he wears a uniform?in his case, a standard National Park Service ranger issue. ?A lot of the guys dress up like soldiers, but I?m too old for that,? he says.

Allen is 67 now, and while he has no thoughts of retirement, he doesn?t plan to move again anytime soon. When he first launched his second career, he was willing to do just about anything for a job in the National Park Service. ?I would?ve gone anywhere from Alaska to Guam to the Everglades. But now with the grandkids??four have come along since Gerry and Linda left Atlanta??we like to be within a day?s drive of them all.? (Slate Web designer Holly Allen is their daughter-in-law.)

Asked to offer advice to anyone considering a midlife career switch, Allen says, ?You can?t be afraid. If you?re afraid, don?t do it.? Looking back at all the challenges of breaking into a new profession, his early days at the bottom of the Park Service ladder, and all the packing and unpacking the Allens faced as they hopped from park to park, Gerry still feels incredibly lucky to have landed his dream job. ?Timing, hard work, and the support of my wife were the keys for me. But I really wanted to do it,? he says. ?It all comes down to how bad you want to do it.?

This month, Slate is sharing stories of people who started over?like budget wonk Ina Garten,?better known as the Barefoot Contessa?in our "Second Acts" Hive. We want to hear your tales, too. Please?go here?to submit your story about starting over.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/Life/the_hive/2013/06/national_park_ranger_dream_job_it_s_never_too_late_for_your_childhood_fantasy.html

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